Patent Application
20080173690
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to manual staplers and fastener applicators, and in particular, to manual staplers and fastener applicators for inserting fasteners into fastener caps intended to be used as a washers for holding roofing paper, insulation wrap, and coverings to houses, lumber, and other articles in the construction industry.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
Well-known plastic fastener caps washers are often used to hold down roofing paper, insulation wrap, and coverings on houses, buildings, lumber, and other structures in the construction industry. Often powered nail guns and staplers are used to drive staples and the like through the fastener caps. Such fastener caps are well known and are shown in
It is therefore desirable to have a slap hammer with a magazine and feeder that feeds a cap fastener under the staple prior to each striking of the workpiece with the cap fastener.
The present invention is an improved slap hammer with a staple magazine, wherein the improvement comprises a cap magazine and a feeder to feed a cap under each staple as the staple is inserted into the workpiece.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved slap hammer with a cap magazine and cap feeder.
Referring to
A staple driver blade 109 is mounted proximate forward body end 30 of stapler body 106 for joint up and down motion therewith so as to engagingly drive a staple through a well-known fastener cap 32, through a material such as roofing paper 34, and into a workpiece 36 so as to produce, for example, roofing paper 34 that is entrapped and held down to workpiece 36 as shown in
It is typical in the prior art to have staple driver blade 109 be fixedly mounted to the front of a weight 107, hereinafter described. However, in the improved slap hammer 20 of the present invention, in order to get a sufficient reciprocation stroke of cap pusher 210, hereinafter described, the up-and-down stroke of staple driver blade 109 had to be increased over the prior art, which necessitated making staple driver blade 109 longer than typically found in prior art slap hammers. The longer staple driver blade 109 therefore was made to be pivotally mounted to weight 107 to avoid jamming of staple driver blade 109. Accordingly, staple driver blade 109 is preferably pivotally mounted about a pin 108 to a weight 107 that is mounted within the forward body end 30 of stapler body 106 so as to provide additional inertial mass to forward body end 30, thereby causing staple driver blade 109 to heavily impact the driven staple into the workpiece as the slap hammer is swiftly swung by a worker onto the workpiece in a manner well-known to those skilled in the art. A plurality of leaf springs 113, 114 are mounted to stapler body 106 by a rivet 112 and urge the forward body end 30 of stapler body 106 away from the forward end 26 of staple magazine 22, so as to move staple driver blade 109 to above the next leading staple after the current staple has been driven into the workpiece. Weight 107 is mounted to stapler body 106 by a pair of screws 101, which also mount linkage bracket 102 to stapler body 106 for use by the improvement of the present invention.
The improvement of the improved slap hammer 20 of the present invention comprises a cap magazine 201, preferably a vertically-oriented tower as shown, that holds a stacked supply of fastener caps 32, and a cap feeder 34 for feeding a cap 32 from the stacked supply of caps 32′ to a stapling position 36 (seen best in
Cap feeder 34 comprises a footplate 213 mounted to slap hammer 20 by screws 214, 215 that engage with the underside of cap magazine 201. To provide additional support for cap magazine 201, a cap magazine mounting bracket 111 also mounts cap magazine 201 to footplate 213 using four screws 110, with the forward end 26 of staple magazine 22 being within cap magazine mounting bracket 111. Cap feeder 34 also comprises a cap pusher 210 mounted for forward and backward reciprocation upon footplate 213 from a first position 40, with cap pusher shown in dotted outline as 210′ in
Cap pusher 210 preferably has left and right tabs 44, 46 that respectively reciprocate within left and right lateral slots 48, 50 in footplate 213, and cap pusher 210 is held entrapped to footplate 213 by entrapment plate 209 that sits atop cap pusher 210. Cap pusher 210 has a cap engaging portion, preferably a curved end 52 of a rearwardly-extending finger 54, that engagingly mates with the curved circumference of cap 32 to feed cap 32 from the stacked supply of caps 32′ to the stapling position 36 under the staple driver blade 109.
Cap feeder 34 further comprises a linkage 56 operably connecting cap pusher 210 to forward body end 30 of stapler body 106. Preferably linkage 56 comprises one and preferably two rigid linkage arms 105, one on either side of slap hammer 20, with each linkage arm 105 having a first arm end 58 pivotally mounted to cap pusher 210 by a pivot axle 211 and C-clip 212, and having a second arm end 60 pivotally mounted to forward body end 30 of slap hammer 20 as by pivot axle 104 and C-clip 103 mounting second arm end 60 to linkage bracket 102 that is mounted to forward body end 30. Linkage 56 is seen to operably connect cap pusher 210 to forward body end 30 of stapler body 106 such that, when footplate 213 is in contact with the workpiece and staple driver blade 109 has driven a staple into the workpiece, cap pusher 210 is reciprocated by linkage 56 into first position 40 preparatory to feeding cap 32 from the stacked supply of caps 32′, and such that, when footplate 213 is then removed from contact with the workpiece, cap pusher 210, with cap engaging portion 52 being in engagement with cap 32 from the stacked supply of caps 32′, is reciprocated by linkage 56 into second position 42 as cap 32 from stacked supply of caps 32′ is moved into the stapling position under the driver blade. The slap hammer is thus primed to staple the next cap 32, which is now in the stapling position. Linkage arm 105 and stapler body 106 are shown in dotted outline in
To use the improved slap hammer of the present invention, the staple magazine 22 is first filled with staples 24 and the cap magazine is then filled with a stack of caps 32′. The slap hammer is held by the handle 117 and swung with force toward a workpiece, and, as the footplate 213 contacts the workpiece, the inertia of stapler head weight 107 will cause the forward end 30 of stapler body 106 to continue to move toward the workpiece (and thus toward forward end 26 of stapler magazine 22) after impact with the workpiece stops movement of the footplate 213, thereby causing the staple driver blade 109 to drive the next staple through the fastener cap 32, which is in the stapling position, and into the workpiece as linkage 56 causes cap pusher 210 to move into the first position 40. After the staple has been driven through the fastener cap 32 and into the workpiece, springs 113, 114 will cause the forward end 30 of stapler body 106 to move away from the forward end 26 of staple magazine 22, thereby causing linkage 56 to move cap pusher 210 from first position 40 to second position 42, thereby moving the next cap 32 from the bottom of stack of caps 32′ and into the stapling position 36.
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated with respect to a preferred embodiment and a preferred use therefor, it is not to be so limited since modifications and changes can be made therein which are within the full intended scope of the invention.
